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Transportation

Americans have always been a people on the move—on rails, roads, and waterways (for travel through the air, visit the National Air and Space Museum). In the transportation collections, railroad objects range from tools, tracks, and many train models to the massive 1401, a 280-ton locomotive built in 1926. Road vehicles include coaches, buggies, wagons, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and automobiles—from the days before the Model T to modern race cars. The accessories of travel are part of the collections, too, from streetlights, gas pumps, and traffic signals to goggles and overcoats.

In the maritime collections, more than 7,000 design plans and scores of ship models show the evolution of sailing ships and other vessels. Other items range from scrimshaw, photographs, and marine paintings to life jackets from the Titanic.

New York City's Grand Central Terminal was constructed between 1903 and 1913. It replaced an earlier and smaller depot at the same location

Twelve photographs in this collection, donated by Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley in 1965, may have been taken by his grandfather, J. Dwight Ripley, who was "in charge of the contract to build the Grand Central Tunnel under Park Ave. These were photos of his taken at time of the construction," according to an undated handwritten note from Ripley accompanying the donation

This car belonged to George W. Hibbs, who worked in his uncle's stock brokerage, W.B. Hibbs and Company, in Washington, D.C. The car was last driven in 1950; it was stored in a home garage until 1993, when it was added to the Smithsonian collection as a bequest of Audrey H. Thomas, Hibbs's granddaughter.

The 1929 Oakland All-American Six sedan was a moderately priced, mass-produced luxury car. Its fine body work, luxury accessories, and styling accents distinguished it from lower-priced sedans. These features reflected middle-class motorists' desire for greater sophistication and General Motors' focus on the sales appeal of artistically designed, comfortable, closed-body cars. Another selling point of GM sedans and coupes was its Fisher Body Division, which brought a heritage of carriage and closed body skills and artistry to mass-produced automobiles.

In the 1920s, General Motors introduced a marketing strategy that featured a spectrum of makes and models with graduated prices and levels of quality. This strategy enticed motorists to "step up" to the next level of price and luxury when their means allowed. Oakland was placed between Oldsmobile and Buick in price, quality, and body details. GM discontinued the Oakland line in 1931, during the Depression, because of declining sales and the popularity of other GM cars, including one of Oakland's own products, the Pontiac.

Susquehanna was built in 1891 by Arthur Sewall in Bath, Maine. It measured 273 feet 6 inches in length, 45 feet 1 inch in beam, 28 feet in depth of hold, and 2591 tons. On its maiden voyage, after an average passage to San Francisco, it reached Liverpool on September 3, 1892, a speedy 94 days out. It sailed in the China trade under Captain Joe Sewell until 1901. Sewell was succeeded by M.T. Bailey and later by Captain Watts. In 1903, Susquehanna sailed between San Francisco and New York in a short 110 days. The ship made the passage between Honolulu and Delaware Breakwater carrying a full cargo of sugar in 89 days. On its last voyage in 1905, it carried 3,558 tons of ore, which was so heavy that the ship’s outer hull planking seams opened up in bad weather. The crew was unable to pump out the water fast enough, and they were forced to abandon Susquehanna on August 24, 1905.

In 1925, the President of the Insurance Company of North America Benjamin Rush commissioned this model from Captain Frederick Williamson, who lived at the Sailor’s Snug Harbor on Staten Island, New York.

The 4-6-2 "Pacific" type steam locomotive for passenger trains was introduced late in the 19th century and perfected after 1910. It was among the most numerous type of steam locomotive for passenger trains operated in the United States from about 1910 to 1955. This type was characterized by four leading or "pilot" wheels, arranged in a "truck" to guide the locomotive in curves; 6 large-diameter driving wheels for power and speed; and a pair of "trailing wheels" in a "trailing truck" under the rear of the engine to help support its great weight.

Far from ordinary, the Class Ps-4-type steam locomotives of the Southern Railway were inspired by handsomely painted British locomotives. The Ps-4's green and gold livery set these locomotives apart from the funereal black associated with most American steam locomotives in the 20th century. The distinctive green was exclusive to locomotives on the Southern Railway that were assigned to the company's principal passenger trains, such as the Crescent Limited, the Piedmont Limited, and others.

The Charlotte Division was part of the Southern's Washington–Atlanta mainline, with extension of the mainline to Birmingham and New Orleans on track leased by Southern. The Charlotte Division included the line between Greenville, S.C., and Salisbury/Spencer, N.C. Thus the 1401 rarely, if ever, ran north of Spencer, home of the Southern's vast Spencer Shops for the heavy repair of locomotives from throughout the system.

A Ps-4 was capable of hauling 12–15 steel passenger cars, about 700–1000 tons, at 80 mph on level track. (The hill-and-dale profile of the Charlotte Division, however, kept average speeds to about 50–60 mph.) The 14,000 gallons of water in the tender permitted runs of about 150 miles—the full length of the Division—between water stops, although there would be one intermediate water stop normally scheduled. Fuel (16 tons of bituminous coal) in the tender was good for the full 150 miles.

Hill was the son of a farmer in Ontario, Canada. At 18 he moved to St. Paul, Minn., and took a job as a clerk with a steamship company. In 1873 he and a partner took over the bankrupt St. Louis and Pacific Railway. This line was reorganized in 1879 as the St. Paul, Minnesota and Manitoba Railway, with Hill as General Manager; in 1883 he became its President. Hill extended his rail line into the Great Northwest and opened it up to commerce. He amassed a fortune, estimated at between 200 to 250 million dollars at his death

Summary

Scrapbook contains clippings of the news stories and obituaries printed after the death of James J. Hill on May 29, 1916, drawn from newspapers throughout the United States and Canada

Cite as

James J. Hill Scrapbook, 1916, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Grand is one of four boats used to survey the "ruggedest" 300 miles of the Colorado River's Grand Canyon during the 1923 expedition by the U.S. Geological Survey. Led by Col. Claude Birdseye, the expedition's primary purpose was to survey potential dam sites for the development of hydroelectric power. Indeed, the survey party mapped twenty-one new sites.

Grand is eighteen feet long, with a beam of four feet, eleven inches. Heavily built of oak, spruce, and cedar, the boat weighs about 900 pounds. Grand is one of three boats ordered in 1921 by the survey's sponsors, the Edison Electric Company, and built at the Fellows and Stewart Shipbuilding Works in San Pedro. The vessels were patterned after those designed by the Kolb brothers, who had based their boats on vessels used by trappers in the upper Colorado River canyons.

The National Museum of American History has a strong collection of early automobiles. The collection documents the great diversity of the early industry. It includes electric-, steam-, and gasoline-powered vehicles and runs the gamut from unique one-offs like the Duryea to mass-produced vehicles like this 1926 Ford Model T.

When Henry Ford got into the car business in the late 19th century, he was one of a slew of inventors and entrepreneurs trying to break into the business. In the 1900s, there were hundreds of small companies making small numbers of cars for rich Americans. While large numbers of these early companies went out of business, the Henry Ford Motor Company dominated the U.S automobile market. More than 15 million Model T's were sold during its years of production (1908–1927), making it the most popular automobile of the time.

The Model T was cheap by comparison to other early automobiles and that, coupled with its availability, made motoring an option for many who had been initially priced out of the market. Price, and quantity of vehicles produced, reflected Ford's adoption of the moving assembly line and mass production techniques. The company's well-publicized success influenced the ways large American manufacturers produced goods of all kinds in the 20th century. Still, though Ford was a production leader, it was not an innovative marketer. In the 1920s, General Motors—afraid that the automobile market was hitting saturation point—introduced the annual model change, designed to encourage buyers to regularly trade in their cars for new ones. The strategy was successful and General Motors sales soared as Ford's plummeted. The company stopped producing Model Ts in 1927.